Via our Food Maven, TaMara:
It’s that time of year when we are getting our gardens ready for the spring planting. The garden shops beckon, the seed catalogs tantalize and black dirt looks inviting. JeffW is taking stock of his root cellar to see what he needs to plant this year, I’m hoping for a better crop of tomatoes and my garden buddy is readying her beds for a dazzling floral display again this year. I saw my first crocus yesterday. Spring is less than 72 hours away, what plans do you have for your garden this year and are you as excited as I am to get back into the garden?
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It looks like the weather will be warm and sunny all weekend for many of us. I can’t imagine anyone will want to spend too much time in the kitchen, so I pulled out a kid friendly menu that is quick and easy. The Enchilada Pie recipe is from one of my brothers, it’s very tasty and the kids love it, which is always a plus. All the flavor of enchiladas without all the work. I love black beans and the Black Bean Confetti adds a bit of color and a variety of flavors to make it a tasty side – and I have no idea why I insist on calling it confetti, except it looks festive when it’s all together. A raw vegetable tray with some favorite dressings rounds things out. And we end the meal with Banana Sundaes. These are based on great sundaes I used to get as a kid at a restaurant near our house on Cape Cod. I’m pretty sure they made their own ice cream. I figured if I was going to do a kid’s menu, might as well go all out and relive a little of my childhood, too.
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On the board tonight:
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1. Enchilada Pie
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2. Vegetable Tray
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3. Black Bean Confetti
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4. Banana Sundaes
Recipes and shopping list, as ever, at the link.
(And thank you for reminding me, TaMara, that I need to get my second tomato-plant order finished.)
Nellcote
Aside from stock is there any use for the thick green leek tops?
Polish the Guillotines
@Nellcote:
Bio-diesel?
Nellcote
Spring planting at the White House:
youtube.com/watch?v=WAi6GfmaQZE&feature=player_embedded
Kristine
Four kinds of tomatoes–I looked specifically for blight-resistant varieties, so we’ll see how those work. And a cool weather Siberian variety, just to shake things up. Three kinds of bell peppers: red, purple, chocolate. A basil garden with five types. This is the third time I’ve tried growing multiple varieties. In the past, only the Sweet Italian has taken off.
I’ll plant the seeds in the starter tray this weekend.
Then there’s the mesclun mix, which will go into the raised bed next month.
Nicole
That enchilada recipe looks delicious. I was going to do tacos tomorrow but am going to try this out instead. Thanks!
Uncle Clarence Thomas
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I’m loving that Bahrain No-Fly Zone.
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Comrade Luke
Zags, bitches!
Comrade Mary
What do you mean “we” get our gardens ready? #sigh# Well, it got up to 17 today and it’s still freakin’ 15 at 1:30 AM (that’s 60 F to you foreigners), so my back yard snow patch has shrunk a lot, but I’m still looking at a swamp in my tomato bins.
Martin
One of our local city councils recently had a bunch of teabaggers elected into power. They laid off half the city workers and are outsourcing fire protection, paramedic services, jail services, street sweeping, IT services, building inspections, payroll services, and animal control. I’m sure the free market will do all of that for free. One of the laid off employees jumped to his death after getting his layoff notice. When the local paper went to interview the major about the suicide:
Not a small town – it’s a city of 120,000. I’ll have to make a point of not driving through there if I can avoid it – who knows if the new fire and paramedics will see enough profit in attending to me in the event of an accident.
Yutsano
@Comrade Luke: Indeed.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
The Snowcrash world gets a little closer…
JPL
@Martin: How sad. My representative’s wife is now part of our city council and since he is a big libertarian, I assume she is too. I’m waiting for them to start cutting services.
Comrade Mary
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko: Yeah, the entire GOP should have POOR IMPULSE CONTROL tattooed on their foreheads.
jnfr
Yesterday morning I was out watering my perennials and basking in the warm spring sun. Got up today and there’s snow on the ground.
Tehanu
All the flavor of enchiladas without all the work.
Are you kidding? Enchiladas are one of the easiest things to make, and I speak as someone who hates any recipe that takes more than 20 minutes. All you do with enchiladas is fry each tortilla for 10-12 seconds, individually, in hot oil till it puffs up, dump it in a flat casserole, lay on the filling (I prefer just cheese, but it works with ground beef you’ve sauteed with onions till brown), dump 2 heaping tablespoons of pico de gallo or Rojo’s Fresh salsa on it, add 2 more tablespoons of enchilada sauce, roll up the tortilla, and when you get finished with however many you want, sprinkle some more cheese and sauce on top and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. You can order the best canned enchilada sauce from Hatch in New Mexico — dirt cheap and they will ship you a dozen cans for practically nothing. Work? Nothing to it.